"God Is Faithful" (I Corinthians 10:13)

"God Is Faithful" from I Corinthians 10:13 was preached by Dr. Mark McElreath at the City Baptist Church of Atlanta on March 29, 2026.

Find out more about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta at www.mycitybaptist.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the City Pulpit. Bible messages from the pulpit ministry of the City Baptist Church in Atlanta. Please take your Bibles with me. Let's go to the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. And we're working our way through this book of 1 Corinthians. We're going just passage by passage, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. And we started 1 Corinthians 10 last Sunday, and we'll really just take one verse now, right in the heart of this book, in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, as Paul is writing this church, and we'll read verse number 13, and we'll take this verse today for our message. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13, the Bible says, There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it. If you mark with me in this verse, right in the center of this verse, three words, we'll take this for the theme of the Bible message this morning. God is faithful. And if you can attest to the fact that God is faithful, would you say, Amen? Amen. God is faithful. And when we look at this verse, he's talking here, Paul writing this church at Corinth, you've got to think about who he's writing to. He's writing to people who, before they came to know Christ, he tells them, he said, I know you were idolaters and you were fornicators and you were thieves and all these, we would say terrible sins. And he's saying, you may be tempted by those again. You may be tempted to go back into that. The devil may have a hold on you trying to bind you and pull you back in. But not you are faithful. God is faithful. And this morning, as we think about these words, we're going to find out that as we face temptation and as we face maybe everything the world and the devil can throw at us, God is faithful in the midst of it. In fact, John is going to write in 1 John chapter 2, verse 15, he says this. John says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. You know, there's a way in which this world and its system tells us we should live. And there are things which this world and the system of the world tells us, here's what you should desire, and here's what you should do, and here's how you should walk, and here's how you should live. But the Lord says, and John says in 1 John chapter 2, love not those things. Don't love the world, don't give your life to the things of the world. He actually says that there are three ways in which we're tempted. It is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. In fact, we're going to find these tied into this verse. But would you make some, make note of some things this morning? When we face temptation, I want you to remember this in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13. Number one, would you write this down? There is no new temptation. There is no new temptation. If you look at me in verse 13, it opens with this. It says, There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. Many people, if we're not careful, will think that no one else has ever dealt with this before. Surely I'm the first person to ever have to face this temptation and face this sin. Well, let me tell you this, you're not. Others have come before you and they've faced it. One way to think about it is to think about the Ten Commandments. All the way back in the book of Exodus, the Ten Commandments were given. And some people think the Ten Commandments are old and the Ten Commandments are archaic and they have no relevance to our world today. But the thing about the Ten Commandments is they cover families of sins. If you think about thou shalt not covet, or thou shalt not steal, or thou shalt have no other gods before me, you take all the commandments, and they cover any sin you could think of, they're going to fall under one of those commandments, either dealing with God or dealing with man. And when we think about temptation, he says here that there's no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. Any temptation you've had, you may think, well, look, this is the 21st century pastor. People didn't deal with the temptations we've dealt with today. They didn't deal with them 2,000 years ago when the book of 1 Corinthians was written. And yet when you boil it down, they were dealing with the same kind of temptations. They may take a little different form, they may look a little different to us today, but they're really just dealing with, as John said, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. And Paul writing here says, there's no new temptation. No sin that they devise today doesn't fall under that which is common to man. You know, there's an evil, pernicious lie concerning same-sex attraction today. If you're not careful, the world will tell you, look, you have this, and no one's ever dealt with this before. I want to encourage you with something. You may have dealt with same-sex attraction. The world and the devil say that if you have felt that attraction, it's because that's how you were born and that's the way you were made. And you should accept who you are and you should fully express that attraction. Look, it's sin. You're not the only one that's ever dealt with it. You're not the only one that can come through it. In fact, we've had people in this church, they've dealt with it, they've confessed it before the Lord, they've gotten a good Christian counselor to help with them, which we can get you in this church, and they've come through that. They've gotten help. The world says that's what you are, but God says there's no temptation taking you but such as is common to man. Imagine that there was someone who cheated on their taxes. Well, then they would be a liar and they would be a thief. But we don't brand them as a liar and a thief and say that's how you were made, and now you should live your whole life and express that because you desire to lie and you desire to cheat. If we don't do that with every other sin, why would we do that with that sin? I want to encourage you, there's a way out. Now we're going to find that in the rest of the verse that God is faithful to bring you through it. But there's also an evil lie concerning those who can help you. Some people say today, if that person that you're talking to has not dealt with the sin that you've dealt with, they can't help you through that sin. They don't really understand what you're going through. Let me encourage you with this. I don't have to go out and pull up a sewer lid and smell it to know that it stinks. We can speak the truth and we can speak the truth in love. Now we have to be careful we don't speak all truth. If we speak all truth, we're just going to beat people down and we're not going to be any help. But if we speak all love and no truth, we're not going to help people. You know, we love people enough to speak the truth. We love people enough that when they need help, we point out the sin and we show them God is faithful and there's a way out, right? You know, the most unloving thing we could do is to find someone in their sin and not go to them and put out a hand and help them and say, God is going to bring you through this. We've seen great victories in this church. We've seen wonderful victories over sin in this church. Why? Because, as we find in our verse, God is faithful. Don't let the devil lie to you that there is no hope for you to get your sin right or for you to overcome temptation. There's no temptation taking you but such as is common to man. Now, here's the next wonderful thing. Look at the next part of this verse, because then it says, but God is faithful. Would you write down a second thing? No temptation is out of God's reach. Now there's no new temptation, and no temptation is out of God's reach. You may woke up this morning and you say, Pastor, I was so tempted by this. Well, look, it's not out of God's reach. You know why? Because God is faithful. In every temptation, God is there with us in the person of the Holy Spirit. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you know what the Lord's given us? He's given us Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit living inside of us. We just sang a song a moment ago, the Comforter has come. That is speaking of a title of the Holy Spirit. And when we accept Christ as our Savior, the Comforter comes and he dwells within us. In fact, he's also called the Spirit of Truth. And the Bible says he'll guide us into all truth. And in the moment of temptation, you are not alone. God is there with you. And God is there fighting for you, and he is faithful. Now, if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you do not have the hope of the Holy Spirit. You do not have the help of the Holy Spirit. You cannot overcome temptation by yourself because you don't know the Lord. The Bible tells us very clearly that the wages or the price of our sin is death. The Bible makes it clear we're all sinners. I talked to a man recently, and we were on door to door, going door to door, we were speaking to him about the Lord, and he said, Oh, I'm fine. I said, What do you mean? You've never sinned? He said, I've never sinned before. Say, you never told a lie. He just told one, by the way. So, well, that's one of the Ten Commandments. You got the other nine point right back at you. But the Bible makes it very clear we're all sinners. And because of that sin, we owe a debt. That is our sin debt before God that we cannot pay ourselves. The Bible tells us the wages of that sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In fact, in Romans chapter 10, he says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you're here today, you're a whosoever. Anyone can understand they're a sinner. Anyone can understand their sin has separated them from God, and they can call out to God once and for all and accept Christ as their Savior. Our ladies were working with a lady yesterday in her home. And they said, Has there been a time where the Lord saved you? And she said, Yes, I've been saved many times. God has preserved my life. My wife said, Now that's wonderful. God's preserved your life. But has he ever saved your soul? My wife said, Immediately, she understood exactly what she's being asked, and she said, No, I don't know that. And I need to know. I ask you this morning: has there been a time where you've called upon the Lord to save you from your sin and he saved your soul? And you know without a shadow of a doubt, you're on your way to heaven when you die. Then if you do, you have the Holy Spirit in you, and there's no temptation beyond God's reach and God's help. That's something to be encouraged about, isn't it? No temptation out of God's reach. You know, think about the testing of Job. If you think about Job's testing, we find that all along the way, God holds Satan back. We find Job is a very blessed man when we come to the book of Job. And the devil says, Look, if you let me take everything from him, he's going to curse you to your face. And you know what God says? You can touch everything that he has, but don't touch Job. The devil takes his children, he takes his possessions. And the Bible actually says that Job kept his integrity. And then the devil comes and he says, Why don't you let me go a little further? And God says, I'll allow you to go one step further. You can touch Job's body. And he touches Job with a grave illness and boils all over his body. And Job begins to break. But you know what the point is? Now Job's going to come through that. God brings him through. And Job learns a lesson he needs to learn. He blesses him double in the end than he did at the beginning. But here's the point God knew how far to let Satan tempt Job. And you know what I believe? God knows how much we can take. And if we are facing a temptation, God knows the temptation we're facing, and he knows we can come through it. And he knows that he's allowed it, and that he's not going to allow us to give in if we look to him for help. No temptation out of God's reach. Would you make note of a third thing? We find here it says, There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man, but God is faithful. And then he says, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able. Would you make note of a third thing here? We find that temptation is not sin, only giving in is. Temptation is not sin, only giving in is. Let me give you a New Testament example. Please go with me to the book of Matthew. Matthew, chapter number four. This is probably the most well-known temptation in all the Bible. It's the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus comes. He's born of a Virgin Mary. He grows up, never sins, becomes a man, and leading up to his, the really the initiation of his earthly life and ministry, he's tempted the devil. Now begin reading with me in Matthew chapter 4, and please look at me at verse number 1. The Bible says, Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Now don't miss that in verse 1. Now imagine this. It's a little hard for me to understand, to be honest with you. That he was led up of the Spirit. That's a capital S, that's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is leading Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Now God does not tempt with evil, but God does test us. God the Father knows where God the Son is going to be tempted. Now he knows he's going to come through. Jesus isn't going to sin. Jesus never sinned, lived a perfect life. But we find here in verse number two, it says that when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward and hungered. By the way, you know when the devil often comes? He comes at the weakest moments. We find that in Matthew chapter 4. Let me encourage you. Eat when you need to eat. Sleep when you need to sleep. I mean, you say, Pastor, really? Yes, really. We used to, we've worked, my wife and I work with college students a long time. And you know when they have the hardest time during finals. Because they're not eating and they're not sleeping. And you know when Satan often comes? He comes when we're at our physically weakest. Look at verse 3. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. What does he do? He tempts him with what he's being tempted with. He hadn't eaten in 40 days. So what does he say? Hey, do you want to eat something? Satan knows. Look, Satan's been at this work six thousand years. He knows what's going to work when he tempts us. At least he thinks he knows. We've got to understand the Lord's faithful. But look at verse 4. He answered and said, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Now Satan is going to come three times. We find verse 3 it says the tempter came to him. Look at verse number 5, it says, The devil take them up to a holy city and set them on a pinnacle of the temple. Look at verse number 8. It says, again, the devil taketh them up into an exceeding high mountain and showeth them all the kingdoms of the world. Three times Satan comes to the Lord Jesus Christ and tempts him. And what do we find? Jesus never gives in to temptation. You know what Jesus shows us? There is a way out. There is a way out. The Lord Jesus Christ is in a human body. According to John chapter 1, verse 14, it says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus felt pain. Jesus knew hunger. Jesus knew thirst. Jesus got tired. Jesus was weary in his human body. And yet, what do we find here? He doesn't give in. He doesn't have to sin. You know why? Make note of a fourth thing. Not only is temptation is not sin, only giving in is, but it ties into this. Number four, every temptation has a way out. Every temptation has a way out. Paul put it this way. Stay there in Matthew 4. But Paul said back in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13, he said, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape. Now that encourages me. Does that encourage you? He will with the temptation also make a way to escape. There is a way out. What is the way out? Look back with me in Matthew chapter 4. Look what Jesus says in verse number 4. But he answered and said, It is written. What is he going to quote? The Bible. Would you look at verse number 7? Jesus said unto him, It is written. What does Jesus do? He quotes the Bible. Look at verse number 10. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written. What is the answer? What is the escape? What is the way out? Not fighting the devil with our own cunning, but wielding the word of God. Are there temptations you deal with? You say, Pastor, I deal with this temptation. I deal with it over and over and over again. You know what you need to do? You need to be ready for it because now you know it's coming. Alright? And you know what you need to do? When you know, look, if an army knows the enemy's coming and they know where they're coming, they know how they're going to come, you know what you can do? You can form a battle plan. You know what that means? You get the Bible verses ready, so when it comes next time, you're ready to fight the devil with the word of God. That's what Jesus did. And if it was good enough for Jesus to do, it's something we should be doing. He says, It is written. There's a story told of a mother. She heard a noise at night and she went into the kitchen. And when she went in the kitchen, she flipped the light on and she found little Billy in the pantry with the cookie jar. And she said, Little Billy, what are you doing? He said, Mama, I'm fighting temptation. Well, look, that's not the place to fight temptation. Don't go in the pantry and grab the cookie jar and look at the cookies and say, Boy, I'm fighting this temptation. No. There's a way of escape. Put the cookie jar down and get out of the pantry. There's a story about a mother, maybe it was the same mother, I don't know. Little girl fell out of bed. As she went in and helped little girl, she said, Honey, why did you fall out of the bed? The little girl said, I think I stayed too close to where I got in. You know what we do many times in our Christian life? We stay too close to where we got in. We get out of the world, we come out of Egypt, but we stay just as close to Egypt and just as close to the world as we can get. And then we wonder, why are we tempted? Why are we giving in to the wiles of the devil? Because we stayed too close to where we got in. Look, when Joseph was in Potiphar's house and Potiphar's wife came to him, tempting him, saying, lie with me. He didn't stand there and say, Oh, I'm going to fight temptation right here in Potiphar's house. You know what the Bible says? He fled. He ran. He got out of there. There may be certain parts of this city. You know, if I go to that part of the city, I'm going to be tempted to go, you fill in the blank. You know how you fight that temptation? Don't drive to that part of the city. Go around it. Get on the interstate, go a different way, go a detour, because you know I'm going to be tempted if I go by that cookie jar, then don't go by that cookie jar. Why? Because God made a way of escape. That's the story of a man. He's trying to quit drinking. And he told the Lord, he said, Lord, I'm driving to the liquor store, but if you don't want me to go to the liquor store, will you have my car break down? Well, the car didn't break down. He got to the liquor store and said, Lord, if you don't want me to go, if you don't want me to get out of this car and go in this liquor store, then you make sure my car door won't open. He opened the car door. He said, Now, Lord, I'm going to walk in this liquor store. I'm going to buy some liquor. If you don't want me to, you help me trip going in this store. That's not how God works, by the way. He gave him every opportunity as a way of escape. Don't blame it on the Lord. But we find here, every temptation has a way out. Jesus says, it is written. Now look down with me. If you're in Matthew 4, would you look down with me at verse number 6? Because the devil likes to use scripture too. Jesus says three times, it is written, quotes the word of God, but look at verse number 6. Satan speaks to him and says, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Even Satan says, in verse number six here, it is written. He's actually quoting the Psalms. But he leaves out a few key words. He just makes it say what he wants it to say. And by the way, you could just about take any Bible verse, take whatever little part of it you wanted to take, and make it say whatever you wanted it to say. Also, this is just a side note, anything you want to believe, you could probably find some nut online that says what you say you believe and get you to get to back it up, okay? But what do we find? Satan is throwing everything he can at the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't give in. You know why? Make note of a fifth thing. Because every person can face their temptation. Every person can face their temptation. What happens when Jesus stands with the Word of God? Matthew chapter 4, look at verse 11. Then the devil leaveth him. You know what the devil does? He leaves. You know what you You know why I lock my car doors at night? We live right here. Because if a thief comes along, grabs that car door, and they see it's locked, they're gonna leave it alone. They're gonna go find one that's unlocked. You know what the devil's looking for? He's looking for somebody who left the car door unlocked. He's looking for someone that's let their guard down just for a moment. And Jesus is ready, and he quotes the word of God, and the devil leaveth him. You know what that tells us? We need to be ready with the word of God. But the devil also can be withstood with the word of God. He makes a way of escape. The Bible tells us in Romans 6 and verse 16 know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants are ye to whom ye obey, whether unto sin, unto death, or of obedience, unto righteousness. He's speaking here of yielding ourselves. Look, we're going to yield either to the Holy Spirit or we're going to yield to the devil. Every time we're tempted, it's really just one of two choices. Will we yield to the devil and his temptation, or will we yield to the way of escape and the Holy Spirit? James 4 and verse 7 says, Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Now, we need to be convinced in our own mind that we want to resist the devil. Look, if you want to give in to the temptation, then the devil's going to get you to fall every single time. But we've got to be convinced. I want to resist this. I want to stand up against this. This is sin. This is wrong. And the Lord will help me. 2 Timothy 2.22 says, flee also, youthful lust, but follow righteousness. Pastor, how do I get over this temptation? There's some things you need to flee, and there's some things you need to follow. Flee, youthful lust, and follow after righteousness. There's things you need to get out of your life, and you need to replace it with the right kind of things. Then the devil leaveth them. Flee sin in the first place. But if you find yourself being tempted, you can bear it and God will help you. Look, there's no new temptation. It is common to man. Whatever you're facing, someone else has faced it. Whatever you're dealing with, someone else has dealt with it. You know what's amazing is when Jesus faces this temptation, he faces it as a man, and he faces it with the very weapon that you and I can also wield. Jesus is the very Son of God. If he wanted, he could have called down angels and said, Well, you whisk Satan away. I don't want to deal with him today. But you know what he does? He deals with the temptation just the same way you and I can deal with the temptation. There's no temptation out of his reach. We also find that temptation's not sin. Only giving in is Jesus was tempted. He didn't give in to it. He was tempted. He did not sin. Being tempted is not sin. Now you should not dwell on the temptation. You dwell on it long enough, you're probably going to give in to it. We also find that every temptation has a way out. God has made a way of escape. And that every person can face their temptation. If you're here this morning and you're under the sound of my voice, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, God has made a way for you to face whatever temptation the devil throws at you. Whatever temptation the world is put right in front of you, God's given you a way of escape. Now sometimes that escape is a stand against it, but sometimes the escape is just to get out of there. Literally escape. But I want you to remember these words in verse number 13. God is faithful. That's the key. Not you're faithful, you're strong, oh, you're a great person, you can withstand it. No, you know what we all have to do. You know what this pastor has to do? Lean upon the Lord because he's the faithful one. Look to him because he's the faithful one. Get strength from him because God is faithful. How are we going to face temptation, Pastor? By depending on the faithful God to help us through it. And then you know what we do? We build on that victory unto victory, unto victory, unto victory. He keeps moving us forward. Thank you for listening to the City Pulpit. For more information about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta, please visit www.mycitybaptist.com.